A day full of royalty, kabuki, electronics, and more

Sunday, May 4, 2008 - Second full day in Tokyo

Today we decided to grace ourselves with a little royalty. We have been in Tokyo for one full day now and we felt that we deserved it. Of course, by royalty I mean a visit to the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace is home to the Imperial family of Japan and is now the residence of Emperor Akihito, the 125th emperor of Japan. The palace was first built in 1888, destroyed in air raids during the second world war (1945), and then rebuilt in 1968. It covers over 284 acres but Meg and I only got to visit a very small part as most of it is closed to the public.

However, the little bit that we did get to see was amazing. We started out by walking over to the entrance to the inner palace grounds and taking a few pictures in front of the two bridges and guard station that form an entrance to the inner palace grounds. All of the inner palace grounds are surrounded by moats and walls. Take a look at some of our pics below--the guard station reminds me of Buckingham Palace in London.









Next we moved on to the best part of our visit to the Imperial Palace - the East Garden. This by far is the most beautiful landscape we have seen in Tokyo yet. The East Garden was originally part of the main grounds of Edo Castle - built during the Edo period, 17th-19th centuries. The castle is no longer visible and they make up for lack of its presence with an ornate and well manicured garden. Check out some of the pics we took below.











After a long stroll through the garden we decided it was time to head on to something a bit more up beat, but before we left the grounds I created a small video. I decided that it would be cool to add some video to the pictures as well. So as we continue our journey and find noteworthy items Meg and I will be creating a short clip. Check the first one out below.



Our next stop was Ginza for Kabuki theater. Kabuki is one of Japan's most popular forms of entertainment dating back centuries ago where it originated from the common people in feudal Japan. An interesting aspect about Kabuki is that all of the roles, including those depicting women, are portrayed by men.

Unfortunately they would not allow cameras or camcorders to be used inside, so the only pics I have to offer are of the outside of the theater. The program starts at 11AM and runs to 4:30PM. You can buy tickets to each act or to the entire 5 1/2 hour show. We chose to just go view one act, the Kisen act. This is part of a series of dances showing the six poetic geniuses of ancient Japan.

Meg and I both characterized the performance as "interesting" and we were glad it only lasted 30 minutes. Meg likened the singing to a cat screeching. The audience definitely was into the show, often yelling out the names of the primary actors as they performed. It was a good cultural experience and I have heard that other acts are more interesting, especially the ones that include fighting. When we left it appeared that they were acting out part of the next act in front of the theater. I took some pics, but I am not sure what was going on so I cannot explain.





After Kabuki, we decided to head to Akihabara, commonly known as the electronics district. This is basically the equivalent of taking all of our major electronics stores--Fry's, Best Buy, Circuit City, Apple Store, etc--and putting them on one major street. However, that is only the beginning. The Japanese take their electronics very seriously. I literally felt like I was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and instead of drinking people were running around buying electronics. They closed down the entire street to traffic and thousands of people were walking around on the street going from store to store. It was absolutely crazy. To capture some of the craziness, Meg and I created another video. Take a look at the video and some pics below.









Meg only let me go into one store, so I got out of there with my checkbook still in tact. I can definitely say this place is a computer geek's oasis.

After the craziness of Akihabara, we decided to head to Harajuka and do some souvenir shopping. On the way, I decided to document one of the more fascinating parts of Tokyo, the subway system. First, let me say that Japanese are some of the most clean people I have ever seen. To prove my point, I took a picture of one of the inside of one of the stations and the railway. You will notice in the picture that there is absolutely no graffiti anywhere (trains included) and even more interesting, there is absolutely no litter.



The litter part is unfathomable to me because one of the hardest things to find in Tokyo is a trashcan. Meg and I are often left carrying our drink cups around for a couple of hours before we spot a trashcan. Meg noticed that no Japanese carry food or drinks with them while on the move and they tend to eat and throw away their trash at the restaurant and vending machine before moving on. For one of the largest cities in the world with 8+ million people the cleanliness absolutely fascinates me.

I guess it has to do with their focus on the importance of society over the individual. That is also why every single Japanese worker that you meet displays an unbelievable zeal for their job. No matter if it is an elevator operator or a top dressed businessman, you can tell that they really care about what they are doing. Everyone is so polite and showing respect during any business transaction with a slight bow is commonplace.

To complete my short chronicle of the Japanese subway system take a look at the two videos and a picture of the subway map below.







Alright, back to Harajuka. Harajuka is one of Tokyo's main shopping district. The only problem that we encountered is that everyone likes to go shopping in Harajuka on Sunday. Take a look at the number of people on the sidewalk in the pic below.



Meg and I had one goal, reach the Oriental Bizarre and do some souvenir shopping. After making our way down the sidewalks and through the madness we reached the Bizarre and spent some time shopping. By this time in the day we were both exhausted, the jet lag is finally setting in.

Because we were both so tired, we decided to call it a day around 5:30PM and head back towards our hotel for dinner. We ended up finding dinner at a really good udon soup place--I can do noodles and beef in broth :) After dinner we headed back to the hotel. I ended up crashing on the bed for one hour and then Meg woke me up to call the boys. After the call I took a quick shower and have been typing this blog ever since. Tomorrow we are headed to Kamakura, a location outside of Tokyo that is home to 65 Buddhist temples and 19 Shinto shrines. More to come on that tomorrow. Love to all!

Jason and Meg